The women’s rugby team sent the Brock Badgers home with their tails between their legs last Friday after a 23-10 win at Kingston Field, leaving the Gaels with a 4-1 regular season record, good enough for second in the Russell Division and tenth in the country.
Fullback Andrea Wadsworth led the Gaels with a two-try performance, leaving her second in OUA scoring. Scrum half Susan Heald and eight-man Michelle Gauer rounded out the scoring for Queen’s.
Head coach Beth Barz said although the Gaels didn’t play their best rugby, their passion cleared the way for a win.
“We ended up playing with quite a bit of heart today which was great, pulling out a win even though we probably didn’t play to our best potential,” she said.
Though the Badgers came into the game with a 1-3 record, second-last in the Shiels Division, Barz said the Gaels were gearing up for a tough game.
“We expected them to be tough, their record isn’t indicative of how they’ve played this season,” she said. “They have a few players with quite a bit of experience and we figured they’d be a tough opponent and they were.”
Captain Shauna Geertz said the Badgers’ reputation as a rough team preceded them coming into last week’s game.
“They were such a dirty team but we kept our cool,” she said. “We haven’t played them in a few years now but just hearsay from people who’ve played them they’re known as a bit of a dirty, grumpy team.”
Geertz said the team is running on a high after breaking their Thanksgiving curse.
“We played two years ago on Thanksgiving in the same place and lost by 2 or 3 points and we were all so disheartened on Thanksgiving,” she said. “Last year we lost to Trent at Thanksgiving weekend so this is such a confidence booster.”
With tomorrow’s quarter-final grudge match with the Trent Excalibur coming up, Geertz said they’re looking to jump last year’s hurdle, when they lost 20-7 in Peterborough.
“We had such a great game against Trent [on Sept. 12], we were so pumped for it, we were mentally ready for it, we’d been planning for it for a year and now we’re in the exact same position as we were last year,” she said. “Now we have the chance to completely turn it around. Everyone’s looking to this game and everyone’s prepared”
The women’s team will kick off against the Trent Excalibur tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Kingston Field.
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